Printing with nylon weedeater cord?

I have read where this is possible and has decent results. Would like to try this on the printbot anyone see any issues with this?

Some brands of string trimmer cord actually have fiberglass in them, which would probably clog up the hotend. Definitely something to watch for.

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I have an extra spool of Taulman nylon filament at home if anyone needs/wants it. The Taulman filament is free of fiberglass and has a more consistent diameter. One other thing about nylon filaments is that they need to be dried before they can be used. They rapidly absorb moisture when left out. I keep mine in a dry box. My filament is 3mm; I’m not sure what the printers at the space use. I suspect 1.75mm as that has sort of emerged as the standard.

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Hi @Rick_Lowe

You are welcome to try it on the PrintrBot; but, please do research to try to narrow down a specific brand that others have had success with.

If you have great success, please post your findings in this thread, so others can learn from your experience.

If something goes wrong with the PrintrBot, please open a ticket and give us as much information as you can, so we can resolve it as quickly as possible.

For anyone who may be scrolling through casually… I want to be clear on why it’s OK to try this on the PrintrBot: In addition to having the classes to let members have the Experience of Building a 3D Printer, I wanted to have a 3D printer available for members to Experiment (within reason - by at least doing some research first!) with different types of filament/materials. These “rules” are for the PrintrBot ONLY. Thanks! :slight_smile:

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The printrbot is 1.75mm, the taulman bridge and 910 (and variants of copolymer nylon) work well. I know we have used it in-house at Polyprinter. I would try Taulman Nylon first on the printrbot first, not on the Polyprinters. Weed eater line is probably gonna give you a hard time.

The trimmer line/weedeater line worked better than I expected. Mitch, If I where going to do alot of prints with Nylon Taulman would be the answer but for $8.00 hard to beat if you need a quick small part. The quality was as good as my ABS print of the same. There are good arguments for drying Nylon and again if I where wanting to make a production part I would recommend it but it was not needed. I followed this link as best I could the only variation is I used the Elmers glue stick on the painters tape if helped a bunch. I used the exact same brand (Home Depot) as he did and the same settings. Again if you doing a bunch of Nylon prints I would recommend a specific product for this, there was some popping and a bit of smoke but not much to really worry about. All in all I would say success except I forgot to put support on my part so I will be printing it again.

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Doesn’t printing (most) nylon require a vented enclosure?
I’ve heard that Taulman does not

Hello Rick,

Please be sure to remove all of the line from the printer once you are done.
I had to use pliers to remove half of the blue line, and heat the end and PLA extrude to get the rest of the gunk out to print with the wax again.

We should make it a regular habit to clean the hot end with a bit of PLA or some other way if we are going to try out other exotic filaments. Any Thoughts on this? Perhaps we can put a sign on the Midnight.

Thanks,

Matt

Sorry, I did not know it extrude pretty easy assumed it was like other filament. Will do this the next time sorry you had issues. Where did you get the PLA does the space provide it? I don’t mind paying for it just do not know if it’s there or do I need to bring my own?

No Worries was able to get it to work, just future reference.

It is cool to see people using it to test other filaments!

Picked up some Glow in the Dark PLA at Frys for 20$ just before I went to DMS.

They have other PLA as well.

Thanks,

Matt

Oh, can you give some feedback on using wax filament? where you got it do’s and don’ts? thanks

Purchased here:
http://www.machinablewax.com/product.php?product=52
info From the site:
Here are a few startup recommendations to help get you started. Please keep in mind that these suggestions can be dependent on both your printer design, and the geometry of the object you are printing.
a. Extrusion temperature = 140°C-150°C
b. Bed temperature = 65°-75°C (some have printed with cold beds)
c. Shells = 2-3 (for most models)
d. Print speed is typically 20 to 70mm/s
e. Prints best when layers have enough time to cool. This can be achieved in several ways. A skirt/brim with all layers, active cooling fan, printing multiple identical items, sacrificial pillar, or extra pause time between layers. A word of caution, especially with larger models is to not allow the layers too much time to cool or else warp can become an issue. There is a balance here that will change based on factors such as ambient temps, and model geometry.

Experience using it:
Use new tape - Oil from hands is not good.
Heated bed or not does not matter - I like not heated
Use Rubbing Alcohol on tape to help it stick - Oil from hands is not good.
Glue Stick does not work well at all
Use a large Raft for a good base
Support work well
There is some dragging fibers of the filament when you move from one spot to another
Still trying to fine tune it and getting ready to cast into bronze soon to see how burn out works.
Just learned M302 last night to turn off the cold extrusion limitation to allow to lower temp to 170 as printrbot would not allow extrusion under 190.

Look for my other post on Wax printing to see the results.

Thanks,

Matt